Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The Sakurajima Kinko-Bay Open Water Swimming Championships (shown on left) has seen up to 242 four-person teams start on Sakurajima volcano and finish in Kagoshima in southern Japan.
Many open water swimming competitions are held near volcanoes, active, dormant and extinct. Some of the more well-known volcano swims around the world include the events listed below.
* Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a 3.8 km ocean swim that starts at the foot of Diamond Head Volcano on Oahu
* Santorini Experience, a 2.4 km sea swim that starts in the old port of Fira on Santorini Island in Greece
* Molokai Channel, a 42 km channel crossing between Molokai and Oahu where swimmers sometime finish around Hanauma Bay
* Madswimmer Hi-Lo Swim in lake Tres Cruces Norte volcano in the Andes Mountains along the Argentina-Chile border
* Five Lakes of Mount Fuji swims in Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Motosu, Lake Sai, Lake Shoji or Lake Yamanaka in Japan
* Maui Channel Swim, a 16 km channel crossing between Lanai and Maui islands in Hawaii
* Crater Lake, a 9.6 km crossing in Oregon
* Nevis to St. Kitts Cross-Channel Swim, a 4 km channel crossing between Nevis and St. Kitts in the Caribbean Sea
* Bora Bora, a 25 km circumnavigation a South Pacific island in French Polynesia
* Lake Toba Festival – World Super Swim, a 117.6 km series of circumnavigation relays in Lake Toba around Samosir Island in North Sumatra, Indonesia
* Trans of Guns Tanegashima Open Water Swim, 0.8 km, 1.6 km, 3.2 km relays in Kagoshima on Kyushu Island, Japan
* Epic Swim Festival in Lake Taupo, New Zealand
* Hawaiian Christmas Looong Distance Invitation Rough-H2O Swim, a 7 km ocean swim that starts and finishes at the foot of Diamond Head Volcano on Oahu
* South Shore Classic in Waikiki Beach on Oahu
* Sakurajima Kinko-Bay Open Water Swimming Championships, a 4 km cross-bay swim in Kagoshima, Japan
To report other volcano swims around the world, send information to headcoach@openwatersource.com.
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